


Coughing up my love for you (That you will never return)

by Mytholagygirl2345



Series: The Heart-sick [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Bittersweet Ending, F/M, Hanahaki Disease
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-30
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:34:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28435470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mytholagygirl2345/pseuds/Mytholagygirl2345
Summary: Flowers.After all that she’s been through, flowers were threatening to do her in.Just goes to show you.Sometimes the most beautiful things can be the most deadly.
Relationships: One-sided Luke Castellan/Thalia Grace
Series: The Heart-sick [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2082819
Kudos: 10





	Coughing up my love for you (That you will never return)

I stared at the thing in my palm. A petal. I threw up a flower petal. 

It was a morning glory petal, crumpled and covered with blood. I threw it in the trash and wiped the blood off my hands. Just in time too.

“Thalia.”

I turned. Standing in the door of the Zeus cabin was Annabeth.

I plastered on a smile. “Hey Annie, what’s up?”

She pouted. “Don’t call me Annie. A few people saw you running over here. I wanted to make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine Annie.”

She nodded. “Okay.”

After she left, I coughed up three more petals. What was going on?

——————————————————————————

A week later, I went to the infirmary. The throwing up had gotten more frequent and painful. I was coughing up eight or ten petals at a time.

Lee Fletcher looked at me in surprise when I told him my symptoms.

“I’m going to go get someone who can explain better than me.” Then he sped off.

He returned a few minutes later with Silena Beauregard from the Aphrodite cabin.

“Hanahaki disease is a rare disease caused by heartache. When someone feels true, unrequited, love for someone, flowers bloom in the victims lungs. You cough up the petals, and later whole blossoms. Eventually, the flowers fill up your lungs and suffocates you.” Silena explained. 

Luke. It was the only possibility. Who else could make me choke on my heartache?

“Is there a cure?” I asked.

“Two.” Silena said. “But each comes with a catch.”

“The first is the easier of the two. You can the flowers surgically removed by a specialist.”

I raised my eyebrows. “And the catch?”

She took a deep breath. “The flowers represent your feelings for the person. Take away the flowers...”

“Take away your love for them.” I finished. I shook my head. I was not going to do that.

I pressed her. “You said there was another cure.” 

She looked uncomfortable. “Yes but it’s risky.”

“Try me.” 

“The only other way is for the other person to love you back.” Silena said.

I smiled. “Then I’ll do that.” 

The both protested, but I didn’t listen. I knew I could get Luke to love me again. I had to.

I made them both swear on the Styx not to tell anyone, and left.

——————————————————————————

We were standing in front of the grocery store in Cloudcraft when I felt the petals start to crawl up my throat, threatening to expose my secret.

“Wonderful,” I tried to hold it back. “I’m going to walk down the street, see if anybody in the other shops has a suggestion.”

Percy protested. “But the clerk said—”

“I know,” I managed. “I’m checking anyway.”

I sped off down the street, then ducked behind a building and retched. The disease had been getting worse, and I sometimes coughed up entire flowers.

I wiped the blood off my mouth and stared at the flower on the ground. I needed to get to Luke. I knew he would love me back.

——————————————————————————

I was lying in my sleeping bag in the junkyard of the gods when I felt the petals creeping up my throat. I turned over and threw up on the ground.

“So that is what ails thee.”

I turned and saw Zoë staring at me.

I wiped the blood off my lips. “Go back to sleep Zoë.”

She wouldn’t. “I had it once.”

I motioned for her to continue.

“When I met... him, I started to retch up flowers. When I helped him, I hoped he would love me and I would be cured. Now you seek to do the same.”

I turned away from her. “I’m going to sleep now.” She sighed, and lay down, but my thoughts kept me awake.

Maybe she was right? What if I couldn’t get Luke to love me back? No, I told myself. He has to. Then I drifted to sleep, the taste of blood and flower petals still on my tongue.

——————————————————————————

“Thalia, call the Ophiotaurus,” Luke persisted. “And you will be more powerful than the gods.”

I stared at the man I once knew. “Luke...” Flowers leaped up my throat, but I shoved them back. “What happened to you?”

“Don’t you remember all those times we talked? All those times we cursed the gods? Our fathers have done nothing for us. They have no right to rule the world.” I remembered.

I shook my head. “Free Annabeth. Let her go.”

“If you join me,” He promised. “it can be like old times. The three of us together. Fighting for a better world. Please, Thalia, if you don’t agree...”

He faltered. “It’s my last chance. He will use the other way if you don’t agree. Please.” 

I wanted to run to him, throw myself at him, shake him until he was back to being _my Luke_ not this hard, cold shell he’d become. 

Zoë’s voice brought me back to reality. “Do not Thalia. We must fight him.”

Luke waved his hand, and a fire appeared in a bronze brazier. A sacrificial flame.

“Thalia,” Percy pleaded. “No.”

Behind Luke, the golden sarcophagus began to glow. As it did, I saw images in the mist all around us: black marble walls rising, the ruins becoming whole, a terrible and beautiful palace rising around us, made of fear and shadow.

“We will raise Mount Orthrys right here,” Luke promised, in a voice so strained it was hardly his. “Once more, it will be stronger and greater than Olympus. Look, Thalia. We are not weak.”

He pointed toward the ocean, and I nearly lost my flower petals. Marching up the side of the mountain, from the beach where the _Princess Andromeda_ was docked, was a great army. Dracaenae and Laestrygonians, monsters and half-bloods, hell hounds, harpies, and other things I couldn’t even name. The whole ship must’ve been emptied, because there were hundreds. And they were marching toward us. In a few minutes, they would be here.

“This is only a taste of what is to come,” Luke said. “Soon we will be ready to storm Camp Half-Blood. And after that, Olympus itself. All we need is your help.”

I hesitated. I gazed at Luke. I wanted to believe he was right. But then I leveled my spear. 

“You aren’t Luke. I don’t know you anymore.” Inside my lungs, I felt a tingling sensation.

“Yes, you do Thalia,” he pleaded. “Please. Don’t make me... Don’t make _him_ destroy you.”

There was no time. If that army got to the top of the hill, we would be overwhelmed. Inside me, I felt the morning glory plant that had been threatening to kill me for months shrivel up, and crumple to dust.

I looked at Percy and Zoë, and decided I wasn’t going to let Luke hurt them. I would die before that happened.

“Now.” Percy said.

And together, we charged.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I took a little from the book. And I put my own spin on the Hanahaki disease. But, hope ya like it!


End file.
